The Wuhan municipal government plans to cut some 30,000 government and public service employees living on finance allocation by the end of next year.

It is the largest staff reduction of government and public institutions in the city, capital of central China's Hubei Province.

According to a local government office in charge of authorizing the size of government bodies and institutions, more than 13,000 employees living on finance allocation will be laid off by the end of this year, and a further reduction of 17,000 employees is expected next year.

It is estimated that the municipal government spends an average of about 30,000 yuan (US$3,600) annually on each of the government and public institution employees as salary and office expenditures.

Thus a reduction of 30,000 staff is expected to save around 900 million yuan (US$109 million) of administration costs every year.

The move is one of the 40 administration reform measures of the city in a new round of restructuring that started in April this year.

Other major reforms include promoting the participation of experts and the public in decision-making, increasing information transparency and regulating government purchases.

As to the eye-catching staff trimming, most of the laid-off employees are from public institutions such as schools, hospitals, research academies, as well as cultural and sports institutions, an official with the office who declined to be named told China Daily in a telephone interview.

"The authorized size of these public institutions will be cut down by 10 percent on average by the end of this year," said the official.

In China, public institutions are entirely or partly dependent on government financial allocations.

The official said the city's public institutions are encouraged to make reforms aimed at being responsible for their own profits and losses.

He said, at present, more than 280,000 people in Wuhan are supported by government finance, including government staff, police officers, members of the local people's congresses and the local committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and staff members with public institutions.

"One of every 39 Wuhan residents is living on finance allocation at present. After the reduction, the ratio would be one to 45," said the official.

Tang Yalin, a professor from East China University of Science and Technology, was quoted by a magazine of South Wind Window as saying that the high ratio of people living on finance allocation imposes a heavy burden on local governments.

Tang said in some county-level governments, the administration costs and officials' salaries take up more than 80 percent of local government revenues.

Tang suggested that while trimming overstaffing, focus should also be put on cutting down unnecessary government expenditures such as entertainment allowances and the cost of purchasing and maintaining cars for senior officials.

(China Daily December 8, 2004)